The General Election

"The Bush administration issued a grim report on Tuesday on the financial outlook for Medicare and Social Security, but said the condition of the programs had not significantly deteriorated since last spring. The new report, like the one issued last April, said Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund would be exhausted in 2019, while Social Security's reserves would be depleted in 2041."

The L.A. Times notes the pres. campaigns greeted the new report with almost "deafening" silence. "As a result, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, had little to say when the latest numbers were released projecting Medicare going into the red by 2019 and Social Security following in 2041. The Democratic contenders, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, also sidestepped the issue."

USA Today compares the health care plans of the three candidates and LARGELY lumps Clinton and Obama together and compares them to McCain's philosophy on the issue.

McClatchy notes how both Clinton and Obama are ducking the gun issue and considering the primary states that are upcoming, every one of them has their share of Democratic voting gun advocates: PA, NC, KY, WV, IN, MT, SD and OR.

Here's some fodder… check out Howard Dean's assailing of the GOP, as quoted in the University of Wisconsin student paper. He said there is "no future" for youth in the Republican Party. "When you look at the candidates on our side who stood up and debated, people under 30 … looked at that lineup of our candidates and said, 'That looks like us in 20 years,'" Dean said. He added when those young people looked at the Republican candidates, they saw "1950s television."

And then, "They can't become more diverse," Dean said. "Who in their right mind, if they were African American or Hispanic or Asian American, if they were gay or lesbian, would join the Republican Party?"